Australia aims for global growth agreement at G20 meeting

SYDNEY (Reuters) - Australia will use its presidency of the Group
of 20 advanced and emerging economies to push for agreements on
strengthening global growth and to generate ideas on funding
public infrastructure, Treasurer Joe Hockey said on Wednesday.

However, Hockey's push to reach a hard target for growth drew
skepticism ahead of a weekend meeting of G20 finance ministers
and central bankers in Sydney.

The G20, which represents about 85 percent of the world economy
and 75 percent of global trade, will also discuss taxation and
the withdrawal of the Federal Reserve's extraordinary stimulus,
which has unsettled some emerging markets.

"There will be discussions about tapering and what it means for
the global economy. Taxation arrangements, particularly in
relation to major digital companies and transfer pricing by
companies... that's going to be discussed," Hockey told a media
briefing in Sydney.

The meeting will be the first of several G20 events to be hosted
by Australia this year, culminating in a World Leaders Summit in
November.

Hockey said he wanted the officials to work on how to get private
sector cash into infrastructure investment, using Australia's
backlog of projects worth some A$400 billion as an example.

"We need to focus on productive infrastructure that is going to
drive new investment and new job growth," he added.

The Australian government has plans to sell up to $100 billion
worth of ports, power station and other state-owned
infrastructure, with the funds raised earmarked for new roads and
rail in particular.

At the media briefing, Hockey declined to elaborate on his
comments made to the Australian newspaper that he was working
towards an agreement to set a hard target for global growth
beyond the current 3.7 percent projection.

Setting the scene for tough negotiations, a German government
source said Germany rejected concrete goals for economic growth
and investment development.

"We are extremely skeptical about the proposals of some G20
partners for agreeing binding quantitative goals (for growth),"
the source said, noting this would be a "slightly antiquated form
of economic planning".

Markets expect little concerted action to tackle recent ructions
in emerging markets, which have been stung by the gradual
withdrawal of the flood of cheap funds from major economies.

"There is simply not enough of a crisis in (emerging markets) at
present for international financial institutions or developed
markets to accept the need for global rebalancing to be altered -
the case from some more exposed emerging markets is seen as too
flimsy," Nomura economist Peter Attard Montalto said in a note.

"Equally, developed markets can respond that they are still
printing (money); they are not hiking rates at this point. It
looks likely that emerging markets will remain dependent on their
own policy options to address their own actual (and perceived)
vulnerabilities."